Let me just start with a study by Adology research firm who focuses on specific demographic, psychographic, geographic or verticle market segments most likely to be the best customers for specific sectors and what motivates them to buy.

Almost half of the casual clothing buyer surveyed, or 46.6 percent say mobile applications or advertising influenced their purchase and 44.0 percent of jewelry buyers were also influenced.

For Industries relating to apparel and accessories using mobile advertising and smartphone applications to keep in touch with customers by sending promotional texts and offering a store related mobile application that could feature information such as a style guide, store locator and upcoming sales events is becoming more important to engage the influx of savvy consumers.

“Retailers may find success utilizing direct mail and mobile apps or advertising,” the study says. ” One possible strategy is to send out mail pieces that promote the business’s mobile app or text promotion, or allow readers to sign up for direct mail pieces via the text messaging or mobile applications.

“It appears that a healthy mix of online and offline marketing can influence a variety of purchasers,” it says. ” Mobile use continues to increase, and there is a large market for not only new smartphone users, but also for those who upgrade their smartphones.

“Retailers should be utilizing these marketing methods in anticipation of this expected continued growth.”

As far as media usage is concerned more than half, or 53.7 percent, of consumers influenced by mobile applications or advertising use a smartphone.

Iphone users lead the pack with 14.8 percent, followed by BlackBerry at 13.4 percent and Google Android at 9.1 percent. By type of phone the breakdown is as follows:

Adology said that the reason why Iphone users report the most influence, may be due to the prevalence of Apple’s iTunes, which is considered the leader in mobile application sales.

However, as other mobile app stores gain prominence, it is likely that users of other smartphone types will report increasing influence by mobile marketing.

Approximately 98 percent of recent consumers who report form mobile applications or advertising use the internet.

To reach more readers online, businesses may want to consider broadening the scope of their other online activities, particularly those that are the most popular among consumers influenced by mobile apps or advertising.

Among influenced consumers, the most popular social networks are Facebook used by 73.8 percent and YouTube at 43.3 percent.

“Cross-promotion of both social network profiles and mobile apps or marketing could be successful way to capture even more consumers’ attention,” the Adology study says.

These numbers should be perceived like writing on the wall. As we enter the new Millennium of Gen Y Affluents understanding how to engage with your market will be critical to the success of your brand. The internet is here to stay but more importantly how we use the internet to be social, shop, research and live will dictate how we should evolve our own marketing efforts to meet the needs of our consumers.